


Start Anew

by theshipshipper



Series: This Is Why I Need You [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 06:20:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12699123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theshipshipper/pseuds/theshipshipper
Summary: Everything has finally fallen into place, and Jon and Sansa are now ready to start the rest of their lives together.





	Start Anew

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jonsatrash](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonsatrash/gifts).



> This fic is dedicated to jonsatrash as a thank you for the extreme amount of support for this series. Thank you so much! :D

  
It's three weeks after their little roadtrip before Sansa and Jon finally told her family that they'd gotten back together. And if the knowing smirks and the conspiratorial grins thrown their way the past few weeks were any indication, it was no secret at all.

Really, her family would've had to be extremely unobservant to not notice the signs.

Starks are notoriously nosy - with the possible exception of her dad who likely only found out through her mother - so she figured they would figure it out regardless of whether she and Jon made an effort to hide it or not.

And they didn't make an effort to hide it at all, so it's no surprise to Sansa that the most reaction they got upon the revelation over Sunday dinner was from Arya, who frowned at them and said, "I'm sorry, did you guys not know that we already knew? Were you trying to be sneaky - because if you were, then it didn't work at all."

Sansa threw a smirk at Jon, sitting right next to her, who was wearing a frown of his own. He definitely thought they were being lowkey about it even after she told him that they really weren't.

Deciding to save her smug 'I told you so' for later, she turned back to look at her family. Better to throw it all in there. "We also decided to move in together."

That was the tricky part. Or so she thought. She had no idea how her family would react to the information - probably mixed opinions at best and an all-out argument at worst. It never occured to her, for good reason, that they would all be unreservedly supportive about it.

"That's it?" She asked them in surprise after they offered their very little and oddly very positive opinions about the whole thing.

"Did you want us to say something else, sweetheart?" Her mother asked her, even looking a little amused.

"No - I just - " she huffed. "That's really all you guys have to say?"  
  
Sansa could remember the only other time she ever sat her family down at the dinner table and told them something very important and they reacted the complete opposite of how they're acting now.

Granted, she was only fifteen then and she told them, cheerful and all, that she had a boyfriend. Her very first boyfriend, Jon Snow, who also happened to have a very intricate relationship with her entire family.

She doesn't remember the details, specifically, but she knows there was a lot of screaming between her and her siblings involved until their parents finally shut them all up.

Her parents had concerns too, of course. They generally gave their children the freedom to make their own decisions so long as they don't make harmful ones.

Still, they would've preferred that Sansa got a boyfriend a lot later in in life, and they also didn't appreciate that she didn't discuss it with them beforehand, but ultimately, they weren't going to make her stop seeing Jon or anything ridiculous like that.

She thinks they were even glad that it was Jon. He grew up right alongside the Stark kids, and her parents practically had a hand in raising him - so he's someone they'd trust to take care of their eldest daughter.

With her siblings, it was all very dramatic; Arya claimed that Sansa was stealing her brother (which was, ew, not what she was doing at all) and ruining everything. Robb wouldn't speak to either of them and got mad at Jon for breaking the bro code (which he probably did, but seriously?). And it took a while before they even warmed up to it.

She didn't think they'd react similarly now, but she was genuinely expecting some questions, at least.

Her and Jon getting back together? It's fine. Maybe they were all expecting it to happen. Or hoping. Or whatever. But moving in together right away? There's so much that could go wrong.

Sansa has thought of every pro and con to this decision and has prepared herself to acknowledge _and_ defend each one of them should her family bring it up. But none of them are going to, apparently.

"You know, " her dad said suddenly, cutting into her thoughts. She looked over to him, sitting at the head of the table. "If you guys are going to live together, you should consider buying a house."

She shares a look with Jon, and though he's doing a great job hiding it, she can tell that he's confused about it. This is not the reception they were expecting. At all.

It's not even a bad thing. Obviously, they'd much rather not argue with her family about their decisions but it's still weird that they don't have to.

"Do you think they're secretly plotting to murder me?" Jon asked her after dinner.

They're in his car parked right out front, just talking hefore he finally has to go and get some sleep for work.

She snorted, looking at him in amusement. "What?"

"Seriously Sans," he said dramatically, turning to face her, and she tried to stifle her giggles. "It shouldn't be this easy. Where's the hostility? The 'you're making a mistake speech'? The -"

She cuts him off with a kiss, smiling all the while. All that serious expression and that's what he's thinking.

"That's not how you're supposed to react either," he said in mock-suspicion. "Are you in on the murder plot?"

She snorted, shaking her head. "No," she said, playing along. "But I'll avenge your impending death if it makes you feel better."

He grinned, stealing a quick kiss from her. "It doesn't but thanks." He paused thoughtfully. "Or they could also just be genuinely okay with it."

"I guess." Doesn't mean it's any less weird. "I know what you meant, though. It's never this easy for us."

"But that's good, right?" He turned to look at her, grinning wider. "It means the universe is finally working on our side."

Yeah." She mirrors the grin on his face, leaning in for another kiss. "Finally."

 

\----

  
Honestly, they weren't considering buying a house until Ned Stark suggested it. But once the idea was out there, suddenly none of the aparments they visited seemed good enough - even though Sansa spent days researching all the possible apartments that would suit both their preferences.

Finally, they acknowledged that buying a house might be a better fit.

"I mean it's good to consider for long term," Sansa reasoned thoughtfully. "And we could get a place with a backyard, maybe get a dog?" She turned to him. "And you've never lived in an actual house before, I bet you won't know what to do with all that space."

He snorted, pressing a kiss on her shoulder. She's talking as though she expects him to say no. "You don't have to sell me on the idea, Sans. We can live wherever you want."

She smiled, leaning back against his chest comfortably. "Okay, yeah. I want us to buy a house."

So they bought a house. Or, more specifically, they found a house on a rent-to-own basis. As it turns out, the owner is an old family friend of the Starks so he's willing to give them a good deal.

It's the perfect place too; a two-storey, three hedroom house with a backyard and all, located in one of the old subdivisions in Winterfell.

It's even just a fifteen minute drive from the school, and half an hour trom Sansa's new job in Torrhen's Square.

Jon didn't expect to be excited about a house, he figured moving in with Sansa in an apartment or a house is the same thing - he's moving in with her either way, so his excitement was focused on that fact.

Growing up, he lived in a shitty apartment in Wintertown with his mom, and when she died just a couple months after he graduated from high school, he'd moved in to the old apartment with Robb.

He's never actually lived in a house before - slept over at the Stark's a few times when he was a teen, stayed at Dany's whenever he visited his aunt, but nohing more than that. This would be the first time.

He never put much stock in the idea of actually owning a house, so the thrill that goes through him on the day they move in is a suprise - but not unwelcome.

It's a weekend, and all the Starks - and Gendry - have come to their aid moving in, though they don't actually have a lot of stuff. Mostly he brought clothes and some stuff he'd owned all his life that he can't throw away, and Sansa has more of the same.

They've bought a few basic furniture; necessities for their bedroom, desks for the spare room they plan on turning into a shared office, a new couch and table for the television. Other than that, they brought in the stuff from the old apartment they could still use and gave the rest of it to goodwill.

It isn't until after lunch that he gets a moment alone with Sansa. He finds her in their bedroom, sitting on the newly assembled bed with a thoughtful expression on her face.

She doesn't seem to notice him come in, but she looks up when he's close enough.

He sat down next to her, placing a gentle kiss on that spot on her shoulder before resting his chin and asks, "okay?"

She nodded, the thoughtful expression melting into a genuine smile. "This is our home." She stated in wonderment and he gets it.

He grinned back at her, feeling stupidly happy to hear it. It just never gets old. "Crazy, huh?"

  
\----

They settle into a good rhythm in no time, which doesn't surprise Sansa at all. They've always been good together, her and Jon.

They still bicker a lot, something they just can't grow out of, but it's more nice than annoying. She loves arguing with him, even if he's infuriatingly wrong about _absolutely everything_. It's even comforting, regaining the ability to be her complete self and speak her mind without fear of being told her opinions are wrong and invalid.

Her new job is great too. She was contacted by an ad agency looking for an Associate Creative Director, and since it's the position she left in Mockingbird - the ad agency that scouted her right off college - before taking the PR specialist position in Baratheon Industries, she accepted the job instantly.

It's fun getting back into advertising. Although her boss at Mockingjay was nothing less than a creep, she genuinely enjoyed the challenge of coming up with new creative and innovative ideas that suits their clients' taste. She's great at reading peiole and their needs, and even better at formulating concepts that has never been done before, so the job really is perfert for her.

But it is a demanding job, and some part of her worries that Jon might resent her for it. He did before.

"I don't mind, Sansa," he assured her with a soft tone one evening, when she felt the need to apologize for the amount of overtime she'd had to take the past couple of weeks to finish her ever-piling accounts. "I know you love your job, I'm not going to hold it against you for wanting to be the best at it."

She nuzzled into his neck, burying her face in the crook of it. "Are you sure?" She asked, voice muffled.

"I'm sure." He swallowed. "I know I was an ass about it before - "

"Don't," she cut off, lifting her head to look at him seriously. "I know why. That job was killing me and my boss was a pervert. We both knew it but I just didn't want to acknowledge it and prove that my decisions were wrong."

"It wasn't though," he said. "You needed to take that job. You always wanted to know what's out there for you, and I wasn't going to keep you from finding out."

It took a while, but Sansa understands now why she and Jon had to fall apart when they did.

They got together so young; Sansa fifteen and Jon just a year older. There was a world to discover ahead of them and already they'd settled.

Not that it was bad. There's nothing wrong with finding the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, at a young age. Sansa thinks it's a luxury; she and Jon were lucky to have been given so much time. To still have so much time.

But her point is -- she and Jon had been planning their future since they were in high school, and they were so focused on those plans that they lost the freedom to explore anything outside of it. They just have this point of vision far in the future and constantly working towards it.

Such a serious perspective for two people so young. It could've burned them out in the long run, so maybe the break up was a blessing in heavy disguise.

She's not saying the break-up was fine. No, it was horrible. But it opened up the world to her in a way that she couldn't see with him.

It's not preferrable, but she learned a lot of things; she grew up.

She didn't know who she was without Jon, without this idea of a future she's been designing since she was fifteen. It was difficult, but she had to learn who she was first, as an individual, before she could lose herself in someone else.

Now she knows. And it's still Jon she wants to be with for the rest of her life. If nothing else, she's glad to be sure of that.

"Yeah," she finally agreed, dropping her head back on the crook of his neck with a contented sigh. "Now I know I'm right where I want to be."

  
\----

  
The school always holds an end-of-the-year party on the night after the last day of classes and Jon, while generally averse to any type of mingling, finds himself stoked for this one.

It's the first year he gets to bring Sansa, and he knows it's weird - they broke up during his first year at the High School, literally a day after the same event they're going to now.

He should be worried, or maybe just nervous, but everything between him and Sansa are good and he can't wait to introduce her to all his collegues.

The exeption to that is Val, to be honest. Don't get him wrong, they're still sort of friends, they still talk and are generally polite with each other when they see each other outside of school.

But Val was the one who made him realize during their break up, that he's always going to be in love with Sansa, so he expects it to be awkward.

In reality, it goes terrifyingly well. Sansa and Val engages in a short conversation and somehow ended up with a private joke that he doesn't understand

"I'm glad to finally see you happy, Snow," Val told him with a smile before leaving them.

When she's gone, Sansa poked him on the side.

"See, it went well," she said smugly. "And you were so worried about it."

He scowled. "I was not."

But she doesn't believe it for a second, and she's right not to. "Sure you weren't," she said with a playful roll of her eyes "Let's go find Sam and Gilly."

He never mentioned that he was nervous, but he really was, because there's a weird history there. He's not surprised Sansa figured it out though, she's so in tune with his thoughts that it would be more surprising if she didn't know.

They find Sam and Gilly chatting with the drama teacher, Ms. Mel, and Jon almost dragged Sansa away to avoid her. Melisandre is just one of those people who has that vibe - he can't explain it but it just always makes him uncomfortable when he's around her.

"Are you seriously scared of the drama teacher?" Sansa asked teasingly when he explained why he stopped her from going over to Gilly.

It's not like she hasn't seen Gilly in a while. They talk all the time, and even goes out for coffee every couple of weeks, they don't need to go over to them right now.

"Everytime I talk to her she tells me that the night is dark and full of terrors," he said with a huff. "It's so uncalled for. I don't need that kind of negativity in my life."

Sansa dissolves in a fit of giggles, dropping her head to his chest in a vain attempt to compose herself.

"You're being a drama queen," she told him, which is maybe a little true. But mostly, he just wanted to get a smile out of her.

Though that doesn't mean he's _wrong_. When they go over to greet Gilly and Mel, the latter told Sansa, completely unironic, that "death is coming for everyone and everything," before making her usual dramatic exit.

"Oh," Sansa said, a little bewildered, watching as Mel faded into the crowd.

"That's just Mel," Gilly told her in amusement, waving it off. "She always says weird stuff like that."

And they change topics immediately after that, and Jon assumes it's a cue for him and Sam to leave them alone.

"Everything good?" His friend asked with a kind smile as soon as they've left the girls to their conversation.

He met Sam three years ago because of Gilly, the art teacher who took Jon under her wing his first year in teaching, and he's never stopped being grateful to have them both in his life.

He blew out a big breath, grinning at Sam unreservedly. "Everything's great, yeah."

  
\----

it's Sansa who suggests they get a dog two about four months later. It's not that anything is missing in their lives - they're doing great. But it would be nice having a dog around the house.

She never got to have one growing up because if she asked for a dog then all her siblings are difinitely going to ask for one of their own and then her mother would probably hate them all for adding five dogs in her plate along with raising five kids.

So they go to the shelter the next Saturday after deciding to get one and Jon immediately falls in love with an three month old husky with fur as white as snow.

Apparently, the dog is inseperable with one of the other rescues, a two month old female husky with grey fur and dazzling yellow eyes, so if they want Ghost, they have to get Lady too.

Fortunately, Sansa falls in love with her immediately, which means they ended up taking home two dogs at the end of the day.

Jon's responsible for most of their training, considering he's got the summer off, and it's always fun watching him try and coax them to listen to him.

And more often than not, she gets home to find Jon on the couch with the dogs on either side of him, the theee of them watching television, and it always brings a smile on her face when she sees it.

It's a nice to have her own little family to come home to.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Whew, this series has officially ended. Man, I had such a hard time writing fluff in this series bc of all the angst from the first two parts but i managed it. I think.
> 
> Anyway, I might revisit this in the future and if anyone's interested or has ideas, feel free to msg me on tumbr - the shipshipper. :D


End file.
